Jack Swagger On The Biggest Difference Between WWE And The Indies, Chavo Guerrero Losing Bet To Him

Colt Cabana, the OG of pro wrestling podcasting, recently hosted a live (to tape) podcast in Australia featuring guests Jack Swagger, Hornswoggle, Matt Cross, and Tommy Dreamer. Swagger, aka Jake Hager, aka Shins Motherf--ker from Loud City, Oklahoma, talked about Chavo Guerrero playing his eagle mascot in WWE as well as his current run on the independent pro wrestling scene.

According to Swagger, Guerrero had to dress up as 'The Swagger Soaring Eagle' mascot at one point. 'The All-American American' said Heath Slater had to don the faux feather cowl as well, but was a terrible mascot.

"Thank you, Chavo Guerrero and everything you've done in the [pro] wrestling business. I was very grateful. It was one of those things thatů but, it was one of those things that came about and at first, Chavo was not very happy about it and he was like, 'is this all you have for me?' type of deal. And then, it just kind of took off for a little bit." Swagger continued, "I really don't remember how it started with, 'hey, let's have a mascot' type of deal. All I know is we had Heath Slater do the mascot one night and he was f--king horrible. He just stood there. And then, if you look at Chavo, Chavo is all over the place and doing it. He wasn't happy about it."

Swagger divulged that he won a bet against Guerrero, which resulted in the former Kerwin White wearing the mascot costume to the hotel bar.

"One night we were having a gin tournament on a European tour. Gin, yeah, gin rummy. We were in Turkey our last night and me and Chavo were in the finals and the bet was that if Chavo won, I had to dress up as the eagle and come out for his match and do something and if I won, then Chavo had to come down to the bar that night after the show and stay in gimmick the whole time. Thank you. Yeah, I got lucky and I won." Swagger added, "he came down to the bar dressed up as the eagle like a great sport that he is."

On starting out on the indies, Swagger joked that it is nice to be away from the company that everyone hates, but watches anyway.

"This is all very new to me, but, at the same time, I'm loving it. I have a new love for [pro] wrestling all over again away from the company that we all hate, but at the same time, we all watch. It [has] been very cool, man. I really dig it. I've been wrestling in some form since I was five years old, so to be here and to be able to provide for my family. Forget about it, dude. It's f--king awesome."

When asked what is the biggest difference between WWE and the indies is that he is dealing with different ring ropes every night. 'The Real American' shared that he loves being on the indies, but said Cabana should check back again in a couple of months.

"The weirdest thing by far for me is the ropes. Like, every show the ropes are different and they're sometimes loose as f--k and like, 'uh, should we do that?'. But, dude, other than that, I'm low key, man." Swagger considered, "but so far, so good. I've only been in it a month, so ask me again in two months."

Also during the interview, Swagger indicated that he has been able to start his own merchandising company since leaving WWE.

"One of the silver linings of me leaving the company is I've started my own merchandise company. Hopefully, we can branch that off and do my wife's fashion line that she wants, but right now, you can get all the Jack Swagger merchandise at lfrlife.com, which, we were kind of like, 'argh, should we tell them what LFR means [or] keep it a secret?' But LFR means 'let's f--king rage'. Live that life."

Find out why eye contact with children is so important to Swagger here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Art Of Wrestling with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.